Research

A potent tool for cleaning up misconduct in the industry is being overlooked by the Royal Commission into financial services. The Centre for Future Work has proposed to the Commission that a system of sector-wide collective bargaining in the financial industry could establish clear and ethical benchmarks for compensation, avoiding the problem of ‘conflicted remuneration’, which is behind much of the misconduct the Royal Commission has... Read More

This submission responds to the call for submissions on the draft rate of return guidelines as set out by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER).The consumer groups have complained that the regulated entities are very profitable and attribute that to flawed methodology on the part of the regulator. We want to support that and follow up two issues; the guidelines relating to equity premia and the gearing ratio.

The Australia Institute made a submission to the Joint Committee on Law Enforcement inquiry into trade in elephant ivory and rhino horn. The proposal to ban domestic trade in ivory and rhino horn would likely bring relatively large benefits and small costs. Benefits would reinforce domestic bans in countries such as China, Hong Kong and the UK. Any costs are likely to be borne by owners of certified items with some use value, such as musical... Read More

Electric vehicles are a very small segment of the Australian automobile market currently, with sales of just over 2000 vehicles last year, in a market with over 1 million annual sales.However technological and policy progress internationally is likely to see the global market grow significantly, with some predicting annual sales of 30 million electric vehicles in 2030. Electric vehicles pose significant opportunities to reduce emissions, imp... Read More

Thank you for the opportunity to make a submission to the South Australian Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission. This submission is informed by research through The Australia Institute and as a former employee of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA). I was employed by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and its predecessor, the Murray-Darling Basin Commission from 2005 until 2017. My last role with the MDBA was as Director of Environmen... Read More

The Australia Institute welcomes the opportunity to make a submission on the Long-Term Diversion Limit Extraction (LTDLE) factors.LTDLEs are required to determine how much water has been recovered to meet the government’s water recovery target under the Murray-Darling Basin reforms. LTDLE factors need to be resolved to bring certainty to communities and water licence holders about how much water has been recovered to date and the progress towards... Read More

While electric vehicles are associated with zero emissions it is often said that they are no “cleaner” than the electricity source. It is suggested that electric vehicles using high emissions-intense sources of electricity offer little improvement and may even be worse than internal combustion engine vehicles. This argument is widespread but we argue it is fallacious. This argument compares the average emissions intensity of electricity generatio... Read More

Competitive neutrality policy aims to ensure that government business activities do not have unfair advantages over private sector competitors, particularly in relation to cost or pricing advantages. Price-setting and user-charging are necessary criteria for a competitive neutrality issue to arise. These are not relevant to the ABC or SBS which provide services by which, for the most part, are not charged for. Similarly, commercial broadcast... Read More

Proposed changes to the Water Act reduce accountability, parliamentary oversight and facilitate changes to the Murray Darling Basin Plan that are based on political convenience rather than science. The bill should not be passed.

This paper examines the government’s 2018 personal income tax proposals by presenting a distributional analysis of the tax cuts and then looking at some general tax principles and considerations that we can use to assess the present proposals. We begin in the next section by outlining exactly how the government intends the tax cuts to operate.

The Australia Institute is the country’s most influential progressive think tank. We conduct research on a broad range of economic, social and environmental issues in order to inform public debate and bring greater accountability to the democratic process.